The Perfect Present
by futurestar26
Summary: Gabe encourages Henry to write Natalie a song for her birthday. Stupid summary, but please please read!


**Ok so this is totally random because I'm totally bored!**

**I'll guess I'll go into detail: See, I have no ride to school and my mom's sick so I'm waiting for her to decide she wants to get up and take me. So I'm sitting reading, writing, and reviews fanfics! Like I said, this is so random but I hope you like :) And yes, Gabe's alive in this one hehehehe**

**I don't own N2N (or Rent-I had just to slip it in there)**

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Henry gave Natalie a kiss goodnight. "And I'll see you tomorrow night for your special birthday dinner," he told her.

"Great," Natalie said. "I just hope this year's presents are better than last year's."

"What was wrong with last year's?"

"Nothing, nothing," she said quickly. "Just forget I said anything. I'm sure you got me something great. I'll see you tomorrow." She kissed him again quickly before running upstairs to her room.

Henry just stood there a little confused. Didn't Natalie like the presents he got her last year? He thought they were really cool gifts. He got her eight boxes of chocolates, a scarf, a book on the history of jazz piano, an _I Love My Boyfriend _bumper sticker, and a t-shirt he had custom made for her with a picture from their first school dance together on it. He had put so much thought into her presents. He didn't understand why she didn't like them. He would have loved gifts like that on his birthday.

Gabe walked out of the kitchen and bumped into Henry. "Dude, go home," he said, clearly annoyed that Henry was just standing there.

"Wait," Henry said, grabbing Gabe by the shoulder. "What did you get Natalie for her birthday?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because she made a comment implying that she didn't like what I got her last year."

"You can't be serious. I know tons of girls who would have died for that bumper sticker," Gabe said sarcastically.

"Really funny," Henry said, crossing his arms. "But seriously, what did you get her?"

"I got her two tickets to see Rent at that big theater up in Seattle. It's her favorite musical."

"And you think she'll be happy with that?"

"Look, I know Natalie," Gabe told him. "We may not always get along, but I do know what my sister likes. She prefers really heartfelt gifts, not the material ones. I know she'll like the tickets because she'll be happy to know I remembered her telling me that she was dying to get out to Seattle to see it. Sure, you got her a lot of cool stuff last year, but I bet she wants something a little more...personal."

"So what should I do?" Henry asked.

"How should I know? Aren't you a musician? Why don't you just write her a song or something?"

"Write her a song? In less than 24 hours?"

"She's always talking about how amazing you are," Gabe said with a smirk. "I'm sure you can handle it." And with that he went up to his room.

Henry hurried home to get working on a song. If Gabe was so sure it would make Natalie happy, then he knew it would be worth pulling an all-nighter. He knew the song couldn't be cheesy, because then Natalie wouldn't like it. And he couldn't steal the melody of a song that was already out there because then she wouldn't think he was creative and original. He had to start from complete scratch. He was up all night writing and rewriting page after page of wonderful sentiments. Finally he pulled together the lyrics. At that point it was almost five o'clock in the morning. He then got working on the music.

That was the hardest part, Henry decided, after he spent three hours on it and still only had four measures written on his page. At around noon he was half-way done when Natalie called him up.

"I'm just checking in on you," she said. "I hope you're not mad about last night."

"No, I'm not," Henry said. "I think I understand what you were trying to say. And I have the perfect present for you. Just wait until tonight."

Once he hung up the phone he got right back to work. His mom was worried that he wouldn't come out of his room the whole day, but that didn't stop him from spending the rest of the day, right up until he had to shower and get ready for Natalie's house, working on her song.

When he got to the Goodman's, Gabe let him in. "So did you...?" Gabe asked right away.

"Don't worry," Henry said. "I did it. The perfect present."

"Awesome." And for the first, Gabe Goodman gave Henry a genuine smile.

"Henry?" Natalie called before she rushed out of the kitchen and into the hallway. She threw her arms around him and gave him a kiss. She tried to pull away, but Henry went in for more.

"Part one of the best present ever," he told her before they locked lips again.

Then someone cleared his throat. It was Dan. "Good evening, Henry," he said.

"Oh, hi, Mr. Goodman," Henry said, pulling away from Natalie and starting to blush.

"Dinner's ready."

At the table was Diana Goodman, smiling like usual those days. She greeted Henry and then they all got down to eating. As the meal went on, they all shared stories about Natalie over the years. Mostly, Natalie said they were embarrassing her, but her smile never faltered. After the cake and a round of Happy Birthday, they went into the family room to pass around the presents.

"I'll go first," Gabe said. The tickets weren't wrapped, they were just tied together with ribbon. He handed them to her with a smile. "Happy Birthday."

Natalie beamed when she saw Gabe's gift. "This is awesome," she said, giving her brother a hug. It was the first time Henry had ever seen them touch. "Thank you so much."

"Don't mention it."

"Me next," Diana said, handing her daughter a few boxes. Natalie opened them happily. There was a new pair of jeans, a new dress coat, and then a photo album. "Eighteen years of memories. The good and the bad," she told her.

Natalie's eyes glistened with tears as she flipped through the pages. "Thank you, Mom," she said, giving out another hug.

"I love you, honey."

"I love you too, Mom."

"Here you go, Nat," Dan said, giving his daughter another gift. Natalie sat back on the couch to open it. It was a certificate for a consultation for a customized piano.

"Woah," Natalie said. "They do that?"

"Oh yeah. They can make the keys custom sized and spaced, and they'll place the pedals according to where your feet fall. You can pick any color and size you want. It's pretty cool."

"Thank you, Dad. That's really perfect." Again, another hug.

"Alright, it's my turn," said Henry, standing up and handing Natalie a small jewelry box. "First, this." Natalie opened it and saw a beautiful pair of diamond earrings. Real diamonds.

"Henry, this is too much," she said, giving him a kiss. "Thank you."

"That's not all." He walked across the room to the piano. "I wanted this to be the best birthday present ever. So I wrote you a song."

"What?"

"It was my idea," Gabe interjected.

"I hope you like it," Henry said with a smile. Then he sat down and started to play. Luckily, he didn't mess up any chords in the intro. And then he had to sing:

_There's something about your eyes._

_The way they caught me by surprise,_

_that day in homeroom in seventh grade._

_I'll never forget that day._

Henry smiled to himself before he went into the chorus.

_You and I are a perfect match_

_in everything we do. _

_I love your smile, I love your eyes._

_And I just want to say_

_I love you._

He heard Gabe chuckle at the lyrics, but he went on.

_Together we've been through everything._

_Inseperable for years._

_Just so you know, I'm hear for you._

_I can dry your tears. _

_You and I are a perfect match_

_in everything we do._

_I love your smile, I love your eyes._

_And I just want to say_

_I love you._

He repeated the chorus again, just slower. He finished out the song with a few more piano rifts before turning to face Natalie.

"What do you think?" he asked her.

Her eyes were filled to the brink with tears. He knew he had done it. He found the perfect present. "That was amazing," she told him, rushing to give him a hug. "Thank you for the best present ever!"

"Don't mention it. I did it because I love you."

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**Cheesy, yes! But totally fun! I hope you like :) REVIEW PLEASE!**

**And it's pretty funny that I didn't have time to upload it until almost 11 at night haha**


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